Tag: Herpetology

guundragon:

I’ll be getting a tortoise for my birthday! We’re going to be converting the bottom bunk of my bed into a tortoise table/box, I’m looking for some ideas as to how to make it nice for my soon to be russian tortoise!

Does anyone have a pet tortoise with safe and cute decor for them? Or even plants that are safe for them to nom on. Other tips are welcome too!

Yikes!! Well we had some issues with our queue here and some posts were sent without the added info! so sorry about that.

You’ve got some great advice from our awesome tortblr community.

The best care sheet I’ve found online is this: 

http://russiantortoise.net/

You’ll find housing, diet, general care info and there’s also a great list of plants you can grow that are safe for your tort to eat or stomp!  Its written by someone with a lot of experience in herpetology and years caring for russian torts. They also run 
 Carolina Pet Supply , a great site for supplies. They have  TNT supplement (for calcium which is super important) is fantastic and natural. Torts seem to like it better than the calcium supplements you get at like petco. Also no risk of too much D3. So I’ll skip the diet advice and say just check that out. I swear by it. 

I love that you’re using the bunk bed! I built Zoya and enclosure out of a twin bed!

As you know, you’lll want a large open air type enclosure. A tortoise table. Aquariums aren’t great enclosures. They don’t allow for  a good temperature gradient and the glass can be stressful and confusing for the tort.  

Decor is pretty much personal preference but I’d definitely get them a Log hide they can crawl in to sleep and dig… and maybe some logs that they can climb up and over. Russian torts love to climb and stomp. Adding stuff that they can do that on without hurting themselves is the best. Also might want to block the corners of the enclosure. Trust me when I tell you.. they are very good at using the corners to hoist themselves up and out. haha. 

Adding some plants is always great but do this knowing they will be stomped and destroyed so you’ll have to replace them regularly. Plastic plants are ok imho if you are sure they won’t try and bite them. Watch closely and make sure they aren’t nibbling. 

Other general tips:

Shallow water bowl is a must. They’ll need to be able to get in but not be covered in water. They aren’t generally the biggest fans of water but they do drink, especially when not looking. 

Adding a Cuttle Bone to the enclosure that they can nibble on is good for calcium and beak maintenance.  How much they use it is very dependent on the tort but Its always good to have it there. 

UVB is also VITAL to tortoise and turtle care. This is a bulb that mimics the vitamins you’d get from the sun. This is vital to metabolizing calcium and growing up big and strong. UVB needs to be on for 13ish hours a day. UVA and Heat is also needed here.  You’ll need a good temperature gradient with a basking spot of 95ish degrees and cool areas around 70.  I use a powersun uvb/uva combo bulb as, at the moment, it gives off the best amount of uvb and also provides heat. You might need to supplement some extra heat depending on the size of your enclosure to get the right gradient.  

It definitely seems like a lot at first but once you get things set up right its a lot easier to maintain. 

Congrats on your new friend! These shells sure do know how to burrow into our hearts. next thing you know you’ll be hunting down dandelions and perfecting your head scratch 😀 and happy birthday!